The owner of the Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and the Marie
Callender’s chains said in the filing it plans to shutter 65 stores
and cut 2,500 jobs, or about 20 percent of its work force of
12,350.

The company cited the weak economic climate, particularly in
Florida and California, where many of its restaurants are located,
for the bankruptcy filing.

There are eight Marie Callender locations in Riverside and San
Bernardino counties. Perkins restaurants are not located in
California.

Documents filed with the United States Bankruptcy Court in
Delaware indicated the company could not afford to build new
restaurants and upgrade existing ones, so it lost traffic to
better-funded restaurant competitors.

The two chains were “adversely affected by the languishing
economy, including declines in consumer confidence and sluggish
consumer spending and increased commodity costs,” CEO J. Trungale
said in a statement in November, following its most recent
quarterly earnings filing for the period ended Oct. 3, 2010.

The Memphis, Tenn., company had assets of about $290 million and
liabilities of $440.8 million, according to the bankruptcy filing.
Top creditors include The Bank of New York Mellon Trust and law
firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.

The company has 160 owned and 314 franchised Perkins restaurants
and 85 owned and 37 franchised Marie Callender’s.

Join the Conversation

We invite you to use our commenting platform to engage in insightful conversations about issues in our community. Although we do not pre-screen comments, we reserve the right at all times to remove any information or materials that are unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable to us, and to disclose any information necessary to satisfy the law, regulation, or government request. We might permanently block any user who abuses these conditions.

If you see comments that you find offensive, please use the “Flag as Inappropriate” feature by hovering over the right side of the post, and pulling down on the arrow that appears. Or, contact our editors by emailing moderator@scng.com.